1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to grain handling equipment. More particularly it relates to hoppers or boots that are used in conjunction with augers to direct grain toward the auger intake.
2. Description of Related Art
It is well known in the art of grain handling to employ powered augers to transport grain from one holding vessel to another for various purposes. For example, augers are regularly used to transfer grain in a truck to a holding bin for storage, or vice versa to enable transport of grain off-site.
However, it is also well known that the use of augers can result in an undesirable degree of grain loss or scatter. Screw-type augers have a relatively narrow, cylindrical intake end which requires immersion in a certain depth of grain to enable uptake of the grain into the auger, but commonly used grain bins are of the hopper style with a downwardly disposed outlet, with the result that grain is often scattered or lost when attempting to direct grain downwardly at the auger intake. Also, wind can cause increased loss due to the distance the grain travels until it is taken up by the auger.
Several solutions have been proposed to address this problem, primarily in the development of hoppers or “boots” that are attached to an auger intake end or receive the auger intake end. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,220,434 to Letzig discloses a hopper attachment for an auger that comprises a relatively wide area for receiving grain draining from a bin outlet, which is then funneled toward the auger intake, the concept being that the wide area will help prevent scatter/loss while the funneling effect will provide the grain directly to the auger intake. Numerous prior art solutions are directed to modifying the means by which a hopper engages the ground surface, such as Canadian Patent No. 2,167,665 to Stark, Canadian Patent No. 2,550,414 to Spenceley et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,411 to Westhoff. However, the vertical distance between the bin outlet and the auger hopper can be significant and the proposed solutions may therefore have little or no substantial impact on the problem of grain loss.
What is needed, therefore, is a means to address the problem of grain loss during transport that reduces the impact of the vertical distance between the bin outlet and the auger hopper.